Recipes

Candle Cafe’ Brown Rice and Lentil Burgers

Near the end of a shift in early 2007, we heard a knock at the fire station’s front door. Steve, Derick, and I opened it to find a group of people who asked if we were “the world-famous vegan firefighters.”

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup lentils, rinsed and drained

1 cup brown rice

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 medium red onion, chopped

2 red bell peppers, seeded, deveined, and diced

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

Whole-grain flour

8 whole-grain buns

Instructions:

In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Add the lentils, reduce the heat, and cook until beans are softened, about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in another medium saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add the rice, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the rice is just tender, about 40 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a sauté pan, sauté the garlic, onion, and peppers until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, combine the lentils, rice, and vegetables. Add the salt and chili powder and mix well. Add a bit of flour to hold the mixture together, if needed. Form into burger-sized patties and place on a parchment lined baking sheet or press into a loaf pan.

Bake burgers until slightly firm, about 15 minutes, or bake the loaf for about 25 minutes.

Jonathan M. Brown

Shaine

Made the loaf. Great combo of flavors, but doesn’t bind. Even tried as a patty. Some result. Might add some sautéed mushrooms and use if for a substitute for “textured vegetable pieces”. Which just sound gross.

Olena Harasymowycz

Mike Davies

Hello, I have made some similar burgers recently and found that adding a tablespoon of soaked flaxseed (only a couple of minutes in a 10ml of water) helps to bind any veg burgers pretty well. Wholegrain oats work well also, you have to blend them into the mix with a handblender/processor (maybe half a cup per 300g lentil mix).

Also blending the brown rice/lentil mix with a hand blender. When the rice gets blended it becomes really sticky and helps to bind the mix.. I still add the flaxseeds or chia seeds to make sure though!